


All Gone (Aftermath)

by Peter_Prker



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst, Takes place After the Last of Us, and just a lot of angst, but i like it, i didn't write this for the purpose of posting so it might not make sense, just give it a shot?? maybe??, there's a brief oc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 23:10:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17569718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peter_Prker/pseuds/Peter_Prker
Summary: Too many options, too many liabilities, too little time.Ellie breathes the frigid air into her lungs, trying to think but the blood clinging to her hands is muddling her brain with the horrors of last winter and the noises coming from her former friend are sending shivers down her spine.‘Fuck,’ She breathes. ‘Nothing is ever easy.’orEllie goes into the woods to hunt and gets more than she bargained for





	All Gone (Aftermath)

**Author's Note:**

> thought i'd post! pls enjoy

Ellie’s fingers are cold and dry and red at the ends. The wind bites against her skin, through her too-thin coat and ripped jeans but she doesn’t move from where she’s crouched- still behind the tallest oak tree she could find and still sitting there after nearly an hour. She can’t afford to leave anyways. 

 

The sun is beginning to set across the snow coated valley, casting a golden hue over the place. She’s sure she would’ve found it beautiful had it not been for the frost in her bones, causing her brain to be too muddled to appreciate the final bursts of light. She’s also sure Joel will come out looking for her soon if she doesn’t return to camp within the hour. 

 

A lock of hair whispers against her nose, carried by the harsh wind and she tucks it back behind her ear, gripping her bow tighter. Wondering, briefly, what she’s doing there. What’s she’s doing this for. 

 

But they’re running out of food at Jackson, there’s no working around it anymore and there’s definitely no point in staying inside the looming walls of the county,  _ sitting _ there and just letting everyone starve. 

 

She’d said as much to Joel and Tommy, both of whom had protested the second she’d suggested a hunting trip. The former demanding to go with her, until a problem at the plant proved near fatal and they needed Joel to fix it. They needed someone strong and so Ellie was left alone- again to the protest of both men. It only took her reminding Joel of the last winter she’d spent alone to get him off of her back.  _ Barely _ and with an apologetic glance, but off nonetheless. 

 

The sound of a branch snapping pulls her from her thoughts and suddenly every inch of her body is on high alert- the chance of the noise being an animal almost equal to the chance of infected wandering through these woods. Ellie’s eyes dart between the trees and across the foliage. And then again there’s the sound of something snapping, this time accompanied by a huff of breath. 

 

She lifts her bow and pulls back the string, arrow ready to fly. 

 

_ There _ , something small and white darts out from behind a crooked bush and Ellie’s fingers are releasing the arrow before her brain has the chance to catch up. 

 

A dull thud sounds as it meets its mark, buried up to the shaft in the rabbits hide. 

 

She looses a breath, deep and relieved because she has  _ something _ at least and she’s only half way towards the creacher when another noise catches her attention. 

 

Someone groans. It’s pained and muffled and another arrow is already notched in her bow before she can blink. 

The last time she’d heard someone groan like that Joel had been on the brink of death.

 

Ellie shivers at the memory of blood clinging to her skin. The weight of it, like it was trying to strangle her, like it was trying to punish her somehow. Punish her it did, it had taken her weeks to get a good night's rest after her encounter with the hunters, and months of waking up screaming, waking up to Joel’s panicked face hovering over hers. 

 

‘ _ Quiet,’ _ He’d always say, the fear of infected or something worse always lurking in the back of their minds. But he’d pull her into his chest a second later and rock her until she’d fall back asleep. 

 

Another groan sounds, louder than the last and it beckons her. She knows if Joel were standing next to her now he’d grip her shoulder and tell her to stay back. But she’s alone, no one here to save her. 

 

The toes of her boots sink into the snow, the soft crunching of ice following each step she takes towards the pants of breath and grunts of pain. She tightens her bow string, creeping around the stem of a giant tree and  _ there.  _

 

Someone is lying in the snow, an ever growing pool of blood tainting the white around them. They groan again and Ellie realizes it’s a man. It’s a man she  _ knows _ . 

 

She sheaths her arrow and races to his side, doing her best not to step in the crimson liquid around them. She recognizes him from Jackson, with his dark hair and weathered skin. He owns a makeshift bakery only a block away from where she and Joel live. He has a husband. He always wears the same stupid shirt on Sunday’s. He sneaks her free goods she’s never tasted before. He shows her a kindness not uncommon in Jackson, but more genuine than she’s ever seen from a stranger.  

 

‘Erik?’ She reaches her hand out to touch his shoulder but pulls back at the last minute. Joel, cold and shivering in a basement flashes through her mind.  _ She can’t.  _ His eyes catch on her, wide and filled with an unnamable fear.

 

‘E-,’ He coughs and chokes. ‘Ell-’

 

‘What happened to you?’ She breathes. He doesn’t answer, he doesn’t  _ need _ to. There are bite marks on his throat and side, teeth ripped right through fabric. He’ll die if he doesn’t turn first. 

 

‘Elli-’ A sob wracks from his throat. ‘Ja- Jaymes.’ 

 

There’s wet under Ellie’s eyes and it grows with each passing second. Erik grapples for her hand and grips it tight and she  _ tries and tries and tries _ not to gag at the smell of blood piercing the air, at the feel of it against her skin. 

 

‘Jaymes,’ He breaths again and she nods, pressing her lips together tightly. ‘Lo- love him.’ 

 

‘I’ll tell him,’ She whispers. He tries to nod but the movement only causes the blood to course from his wounds quicker. 

 

Memories of Joel flash through her brain again, memories of killing and almost being killed and almost losing him and-

 

_ Click, click, click. _

 

Ellie’s head snaps up, eyes darting around the blanketed trees for a different reason than before. Her heart races in her chest, pounding to the beat of an invisible drum. 

 

_ Click, click, click. _

 

She pries her hand from Erik and stands, a pistol already ready to fire in her grasp. Erik whimpers below her. ‘D-don’t-’ He breaks off into a fit of sobs and coughs and there’s blood on his lips now too, she sees, and his eyes are starting to fog over. The first signs of an infection.

 

‘I’m not leaving you,’ She whispers. ‘I won’t leave you here.’

 

‘R-run,’ He pants. And he knows, she thinks. He knows he won’t survive. 

 

_ Click. _

 

She darts behind a tree and peers around it just as a Clicker emerges from the brush. It stills, body wracking with noise and echoes and Ellie counts her bullets as Erik begins to scream, his own body convulsing and heaving in the pool of blood. 

 

The Clicker cocks it’s head but waits, almost patiently and it’s with a jolt that the realization hits her. 

 

Clickers don’t go after the infected. 

 

She has less time than she thought. She has less bullets than she needs. 

 

There haven’t been infected in this area in well over three months and never over a runner. The choice not to take any extra ammo was an easy one and a stupid one. 

 

There are three bullets in her gun but the sound of it might draw out more of them and scare away any game in the process. Nine arrows sticking out of her bag but they’ll only break against a clicker, she knows. She has her knife but can she risk getting up close?

 

Too many options, too many liabilities, too little time. 

 

She breathes the frigid air into her lungs, trying to  _ think _ but the blood clinging to her hands is muddling her brain with the horrors of last winter and the noises coming from her former friend are sending shivers down her spine.

 

‘ _ Fuck _ ,’ She breathes. ‘Nothing is ever  _ easy.’  _

 

And it isn’t, she thinks again as the Clicker begins to screech once more. As it begins to near her temporary hide out. 

 

It’s too late to run. Fighting it is then. 

 

She glances around the tree once more, eyes zoning in on the monster only a few feet away, its back turned to her, and raises her gun. 

 

‘ _ Clicker’s have echolocation,’ _ Riley had told her lifetimes ago. ‘ _ They can send out signals and sense where you are, so you have to hide if you ever see one cause they don’t have to see you to know you’re there.’ _

 

The Clicker rears its head just as Ellie lets her first bullet fly. It nicks the creacher against the side of the temple and a chunk of fungus goes flying at the impact. Screams launch at her and she lets another bullet go, her arms flying up from the kick. 

 

Tree branches rustle from the noise and birds go flying in fear. She makes the mistake of glancing up at them. 

 

Her gun is knocked from her hand as the Clicker flies forwards, arms flailing and teeth gnashing. She grunts, stumbling back and hitting the rough bark of a tree at full force. She barely has time to release her knife from the confines of her belt and jerk it upwards before the Clicker is on her, before the knife is sheathed in its throat. A sob rips from her mouth. 

 

It dies with one last hiss of air and Ellie throws it away from her in disgust, her pants echoing through the air. Suddenly she’s more sweaty than cold. 

 

She leans against the tree, head tilting towards the sky. Her chest heaves with every breath and the bite shaped scar on her arm tingles with a memory. ‘Oh man,’ She mumbles. 

 

Her eyes fall shut as she sucks in another deep breath and grips her knife tighter. The air is quiet and the world has almost fallen still, she realizes too late that Erik is no longer making a sound. 

 

Her eyes snap open just in time to register a new figure charging for her, all heavy sunken eyes and rotten teeth and sprouting fungus. Ellie ducks out of the way, slipping on the icy ground and sprawling out across it just as the runner barrels into the spot she’d been resting. It doesn’t take another moment for the monster to rear its head and release a blood curdling screech. 

 

She grunts, scooting back on her hands, eyes scanning the forest floor for her pistol. 

 

It’s too far away, pinned under the Clicker’s lifeless form and she briefly considers grabbing for her bow before the runner charges at her again and she’s forced to roll away from it’s grasp. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck,’ She whispers, knuckles almost white from her grip on her blade. 

 

The monster screeches again and Ellie roars as it jumps for her again. She makes to jut her arm upwards, trying to ledge her knife into its throat but it grips her wrist hard and presses it down. Her head smacks into the cold floor and her knife skitters away. The runners breath is hot against her face and suddenly she’s taken back, much more vividly than before, to the moment she was first bitten. To the moment her life changed and Riley-

 

‘ _ No!’  _ She screams, thrashing against the creacher but it grips her tighter and begins to gnash its teeth, trying to take a bite out of her. ‘Get  _ off,’ _ She kicks her legs out, landing a blow against its stomach but it doesn’t move, only screams louder and chomps down on the air. 

 

And for a moment, only one, she thinks she might die here. Next to a kind man she barely knows and still somehow completely alone. 

 

But then a new voice pierces the air. A human one. 

 

‘ _ Ellie,’ _ Joel barks, panicked and loud and suddenly the runner’s being pulled from her chest and thrown to the side. She watches with wide eyes as Tommy takes the monster from his brother and shoots it through the head. She doesn’t see it fall. ‘Are you alright?’ 

 

Joel kneels in front of her, his palm pressed against her cheek and the other gripping her shoulder. ‘I-’ 

 

‘Fuck,’ Tommy says. ‘Erik.’ 

 

Joel shakes his head and pulls her to his chest. She grips the fabric of his coat and tries not to sob. ‘I almost-’ She swallows. ‘I found him.’ 

 

‘Poor son of a bitch,’ She can hear Tommy shuffling, no doubt inspecting the body but Joel pulls her closer, burying a hand in her hair. 

 

‘I know, babygirl.’ He says and she squeezes her eyes shut. 

 

It’s so easy to let herself be weak when Joel hugs her, it’s so easy to let herself cry. 

 

She can feel the tears springing in her eyes now, the wet underneath them and no one would blame her. She almost died. No one would blame her. Still, something close to shame echoes in her chest when a single tear trails down her cheek, when she feels the strength seep out of her. 

 

Joel pulls back and rubs his thumbs under her eyes, catching the tears still lingering there. His eyebrows are furrowed and he glances down at her bloody hands, now shaking in her lap. ‘I’m strong,’ Ellie whispers.

 

The hint of a smile pulls at his lips. He meets her eyes. ‘You don’t always gotta be, kiddo,’ He says. ‘I’m plenty strong for the both of us right now.’ 

 

He pulls her to him again and rests his cheek against her hair. 

 

‘We should head back,’ Tommy starts. ‘Those gunshots might draw more of ‘em out. We don’t wanna be here when that happens.’ 

 

Joel stands up, holding out a hand to help Ellie but she hesitates, staring at her bloody skin. She hears a huff of air before he leans down to grip her hand and pull her to her feet. He squeezes her shoulder. ‘We gotta get you cleaned up.’ 

 

A thought races across her mind. ‘I shot something-’ 

 

‘Yeah, we found it,’ Tommy says. ‘Tied it up to one of our horses before we found you,’ His eyes track back to Erik’s body, his eyes open but unseeing. ‘A group of us will have to come back for him later.’

 

Ellie shivers and glances over her shoulder. Joel presses his hand against her back. ‘Let’s get a move on,’ He says gently. She nods. 

 

He leads her away from the three bodies, from the blood and the aftermath of a gruesome death but it stays at the forefront of her mind.

 

Even when she swings a leg over Joel’s horse and grips the fabric of his coat, it’s there. Even when they’re riding through the gates of Jackson and Tommy’s calling a rushed goodbye over his shoulder, it’s there. Even when Jaymes comes knocking on their door with demands and questions, even when Joel sends him away, it’s there.

 

The deep crimson of Erik’s blood does not wash away completely. The ghost of it still lingers against her skin. It does not go away. 

 

And even when Ellie is lying in bed, pretending to be asleep. Even when Joel checks on her hours after, his fingers trailing against her cheek and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, even then. 

 

The memories don’t leave. The red doesn’t fade.


End file.
